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Welcome to America’s Haunted Road Trip

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

If you are like 52 percent of Americans (according to a recent Harris Poll), you do believe that ghosts walk among us. Perhaps you have heard your name called in a dark and empty house. It could be that you have awoken to the sound of footsteps outside your bedroom door, only to find no one there. It is possible that you saw your grandmother sitting in her favorite rocker chair, the same grandmother who had passed away several years before. Maybe you took a photo of a crumbling, deserted farmhouse and discovered strange mists and orbs in the photo, anomalies that were not visible to your naked eye.

If you have experienced similar paranormal events, then you know that ghosts exist. Even if you have not yet experienced these things, you are curious about the paranormal world, the spirit realm. If you weren’t, you would not now be reading this preface to the latest book in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series from Clerisy Press.

Over the last several years, I have investigated haunted locations across the country, and with each new site, I found myself becoming more fascinated with ghosts. What are they? How do they manifest themselves? Why are they here? These are just a few of the questions I have been asking. No doubt, you have been asking the same questions.

The books in the America’s Haunted Road Trip series can help you find the answers to your questions about ghosts. We’ve gathered together some of America’s top ghost writers (no pun intended) and researchers and asked them to write about their states’ favorite haunts. Each location that they write about is open to the public so that you can visit them for yourself and try out your ghosthunting skills. In addition to telling you about their often hair-raising adventures, the writers have included maps and travel directions so that you can take your own haunted road trip.

Mike Varhola’s new book Ghosthunting Maryland proves that the “Old Line State” contains a lot of old ghosts. The book is a spine-tingling trip through Maryland’s small towns, cities, and historic sites, from the shores of Chesapeake Bay to the Allegheny Mountains. Ride shotgun with Mike as he seeks out Civil War ghosts at the Antietam and Monocacy battlefields. Travel with him to Edgar Allan Poe’s house in Baltimore where a ghost—perhaps that of the macabre writer himself—taps visitors on the shoulder. Come aboard as he stalks the spirits of long-dead seamen on the eighteenth-century warship USS Constellation. And who belongs to the disembodied voice that whispers “I’m sitting right here” in Gabriel’s Inn? Hang on tight; Ghosthunting Maryland is a scary ride.

But once you’ve finished reading this book, don’t unbuckle your seatbelt. There are still forty-nine states left for your haunted road trip! See you on the road!

John Kachuba

Editor, America’s Haunted Road Trip